Wednesday, September 12, 2012

eMeet

So today was the day! The countdown was FINALLY over, the planning was done, the devices were loaded, signed in and ready...and the bus from ELIM Christian College rolled in! It was our pioneering eMeet day - the day when Point View hosted our Year 8 guests for a day of 'learning together'.

The classes were pretty excited and there was a real buzz in the air! We gave some basic instructions out and got the ball rolling. With 4 teachers and 55 students, I was wondering where we would all fit but within moments every person had a place and the fun and begun!

So the day was made up into 6 activities lasting 30 minutes with a fun game of BASH in the afternoon to end the day. The goal for the day was to explore, share and collaborate on eLearning through:

Wikis

Blogs

Kodu

Prezi

QR codes

iMovie

We emphasised to the students that the process and the learning was more important than a 'product' as we didn't want there to be time pressure or the worry about finishing or completing something. This worked well throughout the morning and there were 2 stopping points for us to reflect on how the students felt things were going.

The reflections were great as a gauge for us - we were able to work out what needed to be tweaked, what was working, what was tricky and what we needed to leave for them to work out themselves!

I was wondering by lunchtime if the momentum would carry through into the afternoon, especially when they all ended up back in the classroom early while the rain pelted down outside!!! But we need not have worried - they all fell easily back into their tasks and explorations and the afternoon was fun and fab just as the morning had been! We ended the day with a high octane game of BASH! in the school hall and then the ELIM students fled for the bus to get back to school in time for home!

As teachers, we reflected together on the day and decided that we would do a few things differently next time:

have slightly shorter blocks (20mins instead of 30mins)

check the network and logins before bringing PCs into a different school (they wouldn't log into the network here because they had complicated issues! FAR too much for the help desk to manage! This meant that only 2 of their PCs worked for KODU

have 2 sports blocks - they needed some 'brain' rest and some physical activity to get them out and moving in a VERY long day of inactivity

allow some time each session for the students to further explore or complete an activity - some of them really wanted the product, regardless of whether we weren't concerned about the outcome, they were

All in all it was a truly excellent experience for all involved - so much learning for us all and definitely something we will be repeating soon!